Bartending for a Lord
by Lucy Gaol
Summary: H. Granger grew up among the most intelligent thinkers of her age. She debated with Grindelwald, flirted with Tom Riddle and duped Dumbledore. Soon though she must finally pick a side, and stop playing all of them. Set immediately after WWII.
1. Introductions

**_Advice gratefully accepted _**

({.})

It began on the 10th of May, 1940.

By the 14th of June an undefended muggle Paris fell.

She fights in the French resistance after her parents are mowed down. During Case Yellow her father, a doctor, was recruited to help the injured on the front line. Finally his superior officers gave him a gun and sent him to the front where he died as the officers made their escape.

His death tore apart her mother. She ran in front of Germans as they drove into Paris. She did not survive.

Hermione was in exams as this happened. She would learn the truth later from a neighbor who had saved some pictures from their apartment before the well mannered Germans marched down their street.

She did not return to school come September first. France was not safe for someone who hated Grindelwald. He had taken over magical Paris soon after the fall of muggle Paris. Grindelwald cut off the magical's food supplies from the country and muggles. His contacts among the Germans left the magical city at his mercy even before muggle France waved their white flag. Magical France surrendered before the rich could starve.

She joined the Resistance. She joined the muggle one for a while, allowing her hatred of Germans overwhelm her hatred for the muggles that ordered her father to the front line. Only once the muggle resistance became more organized and the officers who had sent her father to die returned did she leave to find the magical resistance.

({.})

Grindelwald is fascinated by the mouse. He assumes that the name came from the rats nest upon her head, but he leaves that question for another conversation. She looks to be thirteen, but he respects the need to place her in his highest security prison. A prison which, coincidentally, doubles as his base of operations.

"You would have been better to send in your tactical team to target the warehouses, then send in the general army at the battle of Prague." she says, telling him that he has made her uncomfortable with his silence and stares.

He continues to stare, unwilling to offer her even the comfort of deciding when they shall speak. Grindelwald leaves her in the cell, amused at the immaturity of someone whose eyes are so old.

({.})

He returns the next day, pleased that she seems to expect him. Perhaps she is more intelligent than her age. This time he makes her begin the conversation, refusing to acknowledge her first. As if she has sought him out when she cannot leave her prison.

"Henrich had not betrayed you" she informs him after a moment observing how he stood.

"I know, but one of your resistance members wished for his head. A head which bought me several supply lines."

"That explains why Micheal allowed himself to be captured" she mused, tilting her head as she examines him further.

"Indeed, he expected to be rewarded when we picked him up"

"What was his punishment for such presumption?"

His laugh is booming and echoes down the hall. "You might have heard him already. His cell is only a few down from yours."

"Should I expect the same reward if I asked for a head? Although I think I should be content with a smaller organ"

"My dear I believe my men should be willing to give you their whole body should you just ask for it. You are really quite lovelier than that ridiculous code name suggests."

({.})

Thor was an excellent public speaker. He always knew his audience, always knew which member of the resistance was happy to be laughed at, and who not to target. He always kept his whole group speeches short, assigning people to groups to talk out their specific assignments afterwards.

In real life Thor's humor was cruel and biting. He knew how to cut resistance down. On a stage his humor was quick and witty. Hecklers were cut down in a good humored way.

The Mouse was awful at public speaking. She had trouble speaking to anyone, but crowds especially terrified her. Too many unknown variables.

({.})

Sometimes the soldiers working at Grindelwald's prison liked to share stories. Most of Hermione's favorites included the different ways they had seen their peers die. Most of the guards favorites were how a prisoner had died.

({.})

"Forced relocation of French men will only drive men into my Resistance's arms."

Grindelwald knows that the obligatory work service is hated by almost all, but it gives the muggles a good taste of their position in his regimen after the war.

"My darling, I know you have been here for a few months, but I relocate few wizards. Those are drafted, much cleaner than asking aristocrats to be serfs, they would much rather be knights."

"You forget how integrated the magicals in France are with the muggles. We had the benefit of a working government far before magical Germany, you may remember in your youth." She does love to pick at his age, either at not acting it or being over the hill as the English are fond of saying.

"My dear, much like how I do not forget you, I rarely forget irritations."


	2. Ground Rules

_Advice gratefully accepted_

({.})

He finds himself returning the following day, and for several days after that. Each time she forgoes the traditional greeting for an observation on some tactical error he made during his campaigns. She talks as if she read about the battles in a book, but he knows that she observed and fought in many of them.

({.})

He had his men searching for clues on who this little mouse is. After he forcibly relocated the former head of the French resistance he expected a few months reprieve from fighting them. Within two weeks the resistance had bombed one of his barracks and staged a break out of a concentration camp.

The new leader, for all intents and purposes, seemed to appear from nowhere. His code name is Thor, young and handsome according to reports. He is too perfect, and Grindelwald knows that there must be someone else pulling the strings behind the resistance. Someone who was there all along, someone who also worked with the Goat. The patterns they are following are too similar to what they were before he clipped the Goat with a spell that would leave him weak and unconscious for months.

His spies bring back reports of a mouse. Small and quiet, but when this mouse speaks the generals of the magical resistance go quiet. Everyone used to assume that she was the Goat's child, an orphan that he took a liking to. Now his informants among the resistance's court talk of quiet comments to Thor that give him a more pensive look.

({.})

"Cutting off the house elves from the markets was a remarkably intelligent strategy."

This is the first time she acknowledges his success, and he almost misses it because she says it in the same dry tone she uses for everything. Refusing to start the conversation does not mean that she decides in which direction their talk will go, but occasionally he does respond to her criticism. Usually he ignores what she says.

({.})

There is no organized German resistance. In the muggle world Germany is still a young country, but in the magical world there is no unified Germany at all. Germany is still, to an unexposed magical's mind, a land of fiefdom's and serfs.

Magical France had always been more connected to their muggle counterpart than Germany. When the muggles had their revolution in 1789 the magical king had tried to close the borders. He only succeed marginally, and he was forced to forgo all of the rights to laws that he had previous held. This power was shared with a council of aristocrats, turning wizarding France into a bastardized oligarchy.

({.})

"You should have focused on capturing Beauxbaton before taking Paris. Once you had the elite's children you would have cut out half of the defense's members."

Compliments are uncommon, cherished, and completely deserved. The mouse compliments him in the same way he once complemented his mother's cooking. With surprise and no expectation that she will ever again cook anything good enough to deserve a compliment.

"Yes, and then I would have had the pleasure of your company a bit earlier."

"Would you have taken the muggleborn students into your prison?"

"Of course not my darling, I should have trained you for the battle field, a duty you would have surely refused." Beaming like a child given a treat on Yule he bounces on the balls of his feet, once again behaves with a gaiety unbefitting of his age and rank.

Mouse, on the other hand, never acts her age. Her words, measured and thoughtful, give one the impression of a professor trying to explain a complicated principle to a particularly slow child.

"What of the children whose parents ruled France, what should you have done with them?"

"Cherished them of course, not that their parents would believe that." His smile is huge across his face.

She believes him, he does seem to try and eliminate as many child causalities as he can. The punishment for a soldier injuring a child is fierce, akin to a soldier turning traitor.

({.})

Eventually he must review the Western front. While in 1943 the muggle Eastern front is dangerous and active, wizarding Russians find no conflict with Grindelwald. Their Tsar is a cousin of his actually.

The term Western front is really a misnomer though. The fight for pureblood rights is against Scandinavia and south Europe. Within each country there are local fighters supporting his cause, and within the countries already under his control there are fighters who do not wish for an earth cleansed. Therefore Grindelwald must control a war on multiple fronts, and hence why he must spend so much time at his centralized base camp.

While he enjoys decimating the allies' soldiers, Mouse finds her living situation deteriorating. Her guards had noticed the special attention their commander paid her. Some resent her, some wish to know why she is special, others wish to impress their leader.


	3. A Little History

_Advice gratefully accepted_

He knows that he could never just nail his 95 theses to a door and leave the revolution to run its course, but sometimes he wishes that his duty to the Wizarding world was not so consuming.

Of course not even Martin Luther was left alone after he laid out his problems with the Roman Catholic Church. He was forced to defend himself, to run away from the infidels, to throw shit at the devil himself and eventually form his own community of like minded believers.

Grindelwald had been harried for his vision, forced out of Durmstrang by a corrupt institution that did not understand him, and then idealistically betrayed by his colleagues in England. While Gellert had never done duel with the devil, he imagines that his father is close, and takes the opportunity to throw Scheiße at his father's portrait whenever possible.

({.})

As a rule Grindelwald has the remarkable ability to focus on his obsessions. His vast intelligence means that he can master a simple subject within a few days and perhaps months for a more complicated issue. The Mouse is not like this. For one things he does not have the time to properly dissect her. His duty occupies most of his time.

Mouse does not understand his desire to step back from the revolution. Every time he talks to her she reignites that inspiration that is hard for him to find some days. While her morals and muggle parents put her in the opposing camp her fierce dedication to her perceived flock encourage him to also continue to fight.

({.})

"You should allow the Greek city-states their sovereignty. Emulate the Romans, not Alexander of Macedon who overstepped his limits so much so that his empire crumbled after his death."

"I never saw much joy from invading the Greeks, truly. Their armies crumbled before Alexander the Great, but I always thought that Attila had greater aspirations. Truly destroying the Greeks was a lovely feat, but imagine destroying the Roman Empire."

({.})

The progress of the war is told in the confessions his interrogators extract from down the hall. He rarely volunteers information about his battles, unless it is about her precious resistance.

He had hoped to make them less precious, less valued. He wants her to admit his moral superiority like he wishes to leave this war and go find Atlantis. He wants something that no one ever asked for from him. He wants something that is totally achieved through his work alone.

Her only companion is him. Well only intelligent companion. His guards are men who were injured and are resting, or are truly too sadistic for the front lines. Either way they are generally the scum of his vast army.

If he can remake the Mouse in his image he will count himself as one of the most powerful men in the world. Not the most powerful wizard because he never uses his magic to force her to do anything. That would not be a victory. Rather with her he perfects his speeches, his logic and his propaganda for publication, knowing that if he can convince her then he has won.

If they can get her to shut up and stop arguing for more than five minutes he know his speech is perfect for the public.

The resistance lost when they lost her. The falter that he expected when The Goat fell only happened when he captured her. He decommissioned The Goat in battle, one of the few times that the resistance directly confronted his troops. Of course he needed a trick learned when studying the Dumbledore family magic, but that was merely a matter of circumstances. Albus would forgive him for utilizing it here.

Capturing her involved more subterfuge. During a routine raid upon a warehouse, while looking for supplies, his spies isolated her from the rest of her battalion and transported her to Nurmengard before her inferiors realized she was gone.

She realized that she was betrayed immediately. The men capturing her did not even attempt to foil their raid on the warehouse, but allowed it to proceed without their commander.

He never tells her who betrayed her.

({.})

"The werewolves should never have been used in the battle for Brussels." Her tone is even, although her eyes flash. Sometimes she cannot help admonishing him like an unruly school boy.

He prefers these comments. While her dry tactical observations are more useful for the strategy meetings he holds, these moral objections give him more insight into what it would take to break her.

"Would you prefer that I send them to make flower crowns on the full moon? Perhaps they can help me catch up on my quilting?"

"Childish and blind I see. What you need is help with your knitting. Look at these restraints, if you do not improve your small motor movements you will continue to create the most comfortable cuffs I have had the displeasure to see."

"I assure you my fine motor skills are perfectly adequate. Besides, I have recently taken up painting. A much more Isatisfying end result I find. i am quite partial to pictures of my battlefields."

"Have you been enchanting them in the Topaz fashion? Because while I was never able to try it I read about..." She does manage to go on for quite some time about the most banal topics. Sometimes he thinks that he tries to infuriate him with the amount of information she dumps on her listener, even when they are obviously not engaged.

He reflects that she would most likely make a lovely teacher.

* * *

**Authors Note: It always bothered me that in the cannon Grindelwald doesn't capitalize on the German bombing of London. My only assumption was that he was fighting a war on slightly different fronts, that hogwash about sentimentality for Dumbledore seemed overly contrived, especially when Grindelwald is supposed to be a mad despot set on the revolution of magicales. Or you know. A big child who has a duty. Whatever. **


	4. Better Business Practices

**_Advice gratefully accepted_**

"Tom-Cat is dead." She remarks, her voice even flatter than usual. Tom-Cat was a member of the resistance, although perhaps child of the resistance would be more appropriate. The day the Goat was taken he had draw her a picture of his kidnapper.

His screams had echoed with a bit more vigor than the guards were used to and they had been discussing it as her food was delivered that morning.

"He had a wand in his hand and was using it upon my people." He replied slowly, hoping that this would be the push that was needed to break her from her nativity surrounding the resistance. While she had been leader the resistance had never recruited children or attacked civilians for supporting his cause. Without her though Thor began showing a willingness to attack Grindelwalds soldiers in more morally ambiguous ways.

"How many years have I been in here?"

"Two. I am sorry though, we usually only celebrate the decades."

"So he was 13?" No active member of the resistance was younger than her when she was captured, although young magicals often ran messages for the command. Tom-Cat was thirteen when he died. He had been on a raid on a magical household that had been quartering soldiers in Grindelwald's army.

"Yes, I am told his voice cracked most horribly at the end. I think that would be my greatest regret, to die with such an undignified vocal oscillation."

"You captured me at 15 instead of killing me"

"You were more valuable than poorly trained cannon fodder."

When her former mentor, The Goat, had been in charge they not face their enemies before they shot them, they did not discriminate due to age or gender when attacking foes. In short the resistance fought as if it were a real war. Only the Mouse insisted that their armies fight with integrity and honor. She would not even allow the resistance to torture soldiers for information.

({.})

Sometimes he wishes he could just force her to work for him. She always seems to know when he is thinking such thoughts, and enjoys all the frustration she can provide.

"Did you not admire many of the objects I made for the resistance? I know those listening bugs took your warlock's ages to figure out. I made those when I was fourteen."

"Did your Goat help you with those?" He is genuinely curious to know more about her relationship with the former leader of the resistance. She fit into his position so seamlessly that she must have been close to the top before he fell in the battle of twilight.

"Of course, although those were all mine. He liked to say that only someone so close to the ground would fashion a war instrument after an insect"." She speaks with a fondness that only creeps into her voice slightly. Her repression of emotion has given her some truly impressive occlumency walls.

Grindelwald wonders how much about her Goat she really knows. If she knows that he is not even French, that Grindelwald has known him before his voice broke and his chin sprouted hairs. The resistance prizes their secrecy, preferring code names in the event that one's family is within his sphere of influence. Surely The Goat would not have trusted a young girl who barely had four years of schooling. He would have never known if he hadn't recognized the color of his eyes.

({.})

One of her guards was thought dead for a while. He had been hit in the hip with a blasting curse, ripping away a good part of his body. The healers had assumed that he was dead and just loaded him into a pile of dead soldiers. When some soldiers threw another body on top of him he woke up and started screaming. So the soldiers ran away screaming about inferni. It was a while before he was treated, and now he delivers Hermione's food each morning with his right leg dragging.

({.})

"The Swedish magicals are too spread out for you to effectively subjugate like you did the French."

"Do you think you would land on my side of the war had your father and mother been a proper witch and wizard? I surely hope you would not have fought against your parents. Children these days are so disrespectful."

"And where is your family, fighting besides you as well? Or were they ideologically flawed?"

"Oh they were not cognitively deficient, per say, but they do not have the right sort of presentation that I would like to encourage in my army."

"Your sister is a squib, right?"

"Oh yes, she was my dear, she was."

({.})

"Your guards would be more effective if it was clear how much they enjoy their work."

"I never thought I would hear you advocating for the hiring of sadists, my dear"

"Well when they make it clear that they have to torture because they must, not because they enjoy it the prisoner knows that they will only go so far before they stop. Making it seem like they enjoy it too much leaves it up to the prisoner's imagination how far they will go."

"Remarkable, and you think that would make my dungeon more effective?"

"Of course, imagining the pain to come can be just as bad as feeling it."

"Experience darling?"

"Of course."

* * *

**Edited 8.12.15**


	5. Making Fun of the French

**_Advice gratefully accepted_**

({.})

"So you finally captured Italy." She is not questioning him, but rather stating a fact.

"What did you wish to do as a child?"

"I wanted to teach, but I wasn't sure if I had the patience. Now that I have dealt with children like you and Ivan I know that I do."

"I shall be sure to pass on your regard to Ivan, too many people overlook how much of an ass he truly is."

Ivan visits her cell later to thank her for her regard.

({.})

She is captured in 1943, after becoming high up enough in the resistance movement to put a target on her head. Promptly taken to Nurmengard, she remains near their leader until the end of the war.

His fascination with her is understandable, she is 15, looks 13, and yet was spearheading many of the Resistance's movements as they attempted to spread discord with their form of Guerrilla warfare. He values her intelligence, as she values his.

He may be her enemy, but she is too smart to let that blind her to his genius. Even if it is only in her own head. His genius comes not only from natural talent, but from hard work as well. Hermione wishes she were so lucky. She did not have the time to work hard, only having so long in school, and has learned most of her lessons on the fly.

She hopes one day that he will trust her enough to release her, and then she may begin working against him again. She knows, however, that if she were released it would be under the pretense of fighting for him. His good humor only goes so far.

Even if she were return to the Resistance she does not like the form it has taken. At first she refuses to believe that Thor would abandon his principles. What she does not realize is that he did not abandon his principles, but hers.

Forfeiting her morals has not placed the rebels in a better position. Since her capture they have begun attacking those who collaborate with Grindelwald's forces. Bystanders are forced to choose sides, and often they do not choose the poorly funded and ragtag group of rebels.

Grindelwald rejoices in an opponent whose extremism will turn his supporters into fanatics.

Her capture was the best day of the war so far.

({.})

"The vampires of Siberia might have allied with you if you had offered them blood banks."

"Darling what are these _blood banks_ that you speak of? Do the goblins run them? Do they have some of Attila's blood left? I found a cloth supposedly infused with his blood, supposed to make one as randy as a dog, but sady it was proven to just have a dark, debilitating curse that caused a man to well... I'm sure heard the noise last Tuesday?"

"A blood bank collects blood from muggles and then shares it to other muggles who are sick and need fresh blood. Goodness Gellert, you have a whole troop of blood magic users, shouldn't you know the easiest way to collect it?"

"No, but tell me more about how to set one up for the vampires, I am afraid I caught one snacking on a Sargent the other day, and I know that he was not one of our set aside throwaways for them."

({.})

"We are not so different. I am much more charismatic, better looking, and much smarter, but once you find a cause you too will rebuild the world. If you can overcome your hedonistic French ways of course."

She started this day by asking why he wanted to break down the society he was born in. He never shies away from a joke about her birth country though. Or her name.

Hedonistic. Sensually self-indulgent. Even the code name the Mouse is so lacking in allure that his suggestion makes her smile with the left side of her mouth.

He is right. Besides, even if he is wrong, it is best for her to make him believe he is right. It is his impression of her as valuable that has allowed her to live this long, after all.

"Why do you think I have not found a cause yet?"

"You have not destroyed the world yet. To rebuild it you must upturn the basket, and then you can put the good fruit back in." His tone remains upbeat, as if he truly were talking about shopping rather than lives.

"I do not believe you, you are not as lazy as to destroy it just because it give you no reason not to. Besides, if you were to do so you might as well toss out a third of the world"

"Ah, but we must be realistic of what you can accomplish, as you are not as personable my dear mouse. Maybe you should consider the easy change."

"As you said, I will rebuild the world, but if I am to rebuild it in my image I want it to be because it is embraced, not that I make them take it or die."

Grindelwald cannot abide men of weak conviction. It is in her own self-interest to let him believe that she is strong.

({.})

"The opera in Italy was still playing when I was captured. You should leave that open and preforming."

"Darling you will find that there is nothing that the officers enjoy as pretending they are cultured enough to enjoy opera. Of course it shall stay open, if only to judge the staying powers of my men without being privy to more intimate details of their lives."

"Oh my friend I am sure I can give you details upon their endurance, and I do not believe you would be impressed."

"Darling you know that I would try and improve your situation in here, but just imagine what your countrymen would think to know that while they are out there risking their lives to remove this terrible, handsome despot you were living a luxurious live, risk free."

* * *

**Edited 12.8.15**


	6. Shutting Her Up

**_Advice gratefully accepted _**

* * *

"Injuries must happen, what with you working so closely with the muggle army." While he was slinging stinging hexes through the bars, a guard had mentioned the injury that landed him in this prison.

"Bullets tear through magical flesh as easily as muggle, but I have since ordered every man to ward his clothes against non-magical bullets.

({.})

For a week she asked him riddles instead. He thinks he prefers the change, although he resents that his top war leaders cannot always solve the riddles, unlike this teenage girl.

({.})

She has been waiting for him to lose a battle for two years. When it comes it is not as sweet as she imagined it would be.

He had lost skirmishes before, losing men in the accidents that so often befall an army. Especially a wizarding army in such close contact with a muggle army. Wizards can easily destroy guns and tanks, but they have to see them before they stop them. Often when weapons misfire wizards do not know what to do. Soon those who work with muggles learn to respect their destructive powers.

This battle took place on the summer solstice while his men were preparing for the rituals of Belfast. Grindelwald's men celebrate the Old Ways, thus were not expecting for their opponents to attack on a holy day.

Hermione always knew, theoretically, that her enemy was human too, but that was often in the abstract.

Grindelwald sits outside her cell for hours, staring at the wall.

({.})

"The man down the hall cheated on his wife with her brother, last week the brother said that he slept with his sister."

"And every day you regret that you do not have a brother or husband that loves you so fondly."

"Grindelwald, if I had a brother that slept with my husband after raping me, well he wouldn't be my living brother much longer."

By now the daily torture sessions bore her.

({.})

"Muggle Germany may be a good place to begin a war, but they are hardly the strongest allies you could have found."

"Before you The Goat was in charge?" Today he avoids what she said in order to begin a discussion he has wanted for a long time.

"You know this, there would be no other reason for you to target him yourself in the battle where he was injured."

"A simple spell meant to put him in a coma for a few months."

"You would content yourself with a simple spell? I do not believe this. Unless by simple you mean a spell that requires months of practice for a normal magical, or something esoteric, but still in more than one book."

"Of course I would stoop to learn the basic spells, my dear all know that the more complex spells are flashier, but not best for dueling." His voice is light and playful, in contrast to her serious tone.

"This I do not believe, Grindelwald must be above all men in all he does, this does not fit your image at all sir." While her words are teasing, her voice is a monotone.

"Ah, but you forget that I am a common man elevated only by a respect for the gifts I was given. My humility"

At this she snorts, but he continues.

"does not prevent me from acknowledging that I have more power and intelligence than most, but I do not seek to raise my self above the masses. Rather I seek to be a great teacher, one who guides the masses towards their glorious future."

This shuts her up for three minutes or so, so he takes that as permission to use it in a speech he is preparing.

({.})

"Did you know one of your guards was raised as a girl for the first six years of his life?"

"Darling that is neither a riddle or a comment on the war. Are you alright? Did you forget the introduction to _History __Beauxbaton." _

_"_One of his peers brought in a photo. I think the shock of him in a small pink dress drove the middle of _The Death of Ivan Ilyich"_

({.})

"You should wait to invade England before you have a treaty with the Americas."

He knows that the Americas magical community is weak, displaced and not ready for the upcoming war, but he is not sure about the muggle side of America.

Hermione does not know either, but she knows that the English magical community needs more time to prepare for war, and that if Grindelwald moves forward before the English have time to acknowledge his power than the English will fall.

"Afraid for the Goat still my darling"

"I always wondered if you knew that he was not from France originally, so how much of his life were you able to ferret out?" She muses, not confirming anything he did not know, nor surprised that he is from England.

"If I watch him die then I could write the autobiography."

* * *

**Sorry about the shorter chapters, I decided to try and break them down into smaller sections so they would be easier for me to edit.**


	7. Hello Papa

_Advice gratefully accepted_

_({.})_

Many strangers walk into Aberforth's bar. He has a reputation for not asking questions.

Therefore, when a stranger walks in with a hood over her face he makes no comment. He does notice that she, for her cloak is not loose enough to hide the ratio of hips to waist, walks as if she were injured.

He shrugs. He learns more by not asking than if he were to actually show interest. Most of his customers are a suspicious lot. She shuttles herself to the far corner, the one that has the best view of the door, and he notes that.

Paranoid. Or truly in danger.

He wipes a glass with the affected unconcern that he does everything in this bar, and then approaches her, knowing that someone in enough trouble to hide their face indoors will not leave their chosen seat for someone to hex.

He cannot see the top of her face, but the bottom looks amused. This both worries and calms him. Sooths the concerns he had for her, and also makes him evaluate his own safety.

"Drink?" He grumbles, suspecting that this interaction will be short.

"On the house I would hope, Papa?" She replies in a known voice.

He tries not to start, but he is out of practice with being surprised. Well. It seems that today will be quite interesting.

"A good daughter would have written to me."

"And a better father would have… Well it is no use now. May I have a milk?"

It makes him scoff under his breath. Milk. That child.

"Of course, I would never serve anything stronger to minors" And with that comment he leaves her, partially to compose himself, partially because he needs to have the last word in order to be ready for the conversation they must have when his bar empties.

({.})

"I'm sorry for barging in like this," and with that she begins the conversation exactly as he always imagined she would. Apologizing for something he should have done.

It has been three years. Not very long in the life of an adult, but in the life of a child it is eternities. In the life of a child in war it is infinity.

He knows this, just as he knows that nothing she tells him will absolve him. Some of the guilt has ebbed, just seeing her alive, but that does not make him right and the guilt will only pass when he believes that his decisions no longer hurt her.

"But I'm afraid that I had nowhere else to go. What do you know of the Resistance after you were incapacitated?"

He snorts. She was always better at window dressing the truth. Incapacitated is another way to say betrayed, kidnapped, running a bar which he does not want to in a country he had tried to escape.

"I know what some refugees have told me. That for a little it was well, working for those who needed us. But then they changed, and those we had protected were suddenly no longer safe from either side."

"'We had protected'" she repeats, chewing his words over.

"It was truly your Resistance, until they stopped protecting the people." She states, looking into his eyes with a fierceness that does not belong to his little mouse. Alas it has been an eternity for a child and infinity in a war.

He has nothing to say to this, so he leaves her and makes her dinner. She follows, and he allows her to watch him making the food.

"Will you go back?" He stares at his hands assembling the sandwich.

"They were no longer my Resistance either after I was captured."

He had thought it would be harder to find out what happened. Why she was in Britain, how she had found him, why she had not killed him yet. Why the Resistance had not killed him yet, although they never knew him as anything other than the Goat. Now he was not sure if he wanted the answers.

"The fall of Him, by your brothers hand, has left me with more options than I thought possible."

Bitterness surges at the idea that his brother, the very brother who betrayed him, ultimately has the goodwill of a child that had been his to protect.

"I'm sorry I left." He says, releasing the words that would otherwise choke him until he found his brother and strangled him.

"You were taken. You were incapacitated until eight months ago, by which time the Resistance had made it very clear that they were no longer yours. I know this and I do not blame you." Very matter of fact. Very logical. That is his mouse.

"Thank you." He stares at his hands even as she starts eating the sandwich he made her. She is remarkably well informed, but he knows of his little mouse's habit of sneaking around peepholes and listening through the bushiness of hair.

He leaves it at that. There is nothing more to say on the subject, and they speak of innocent things like the English would as he shows her a room down the hall from his.

He does not ward his room that night. He does not think she will harm him. Even so, he would not stop her.


	8. Hating Family

_Advice gratefully accepted_

"How old are you now, girl?" The sappiness of the night is gone, and she for one seems relieved at the change. He could be projecting. He knows that he is relieved.

"17 at last tally, perhaps I should check again though" she replies with a bit of pertness. Not as teasing as she once was, but a little more relaxed than yesterday.

"Not too old for Hogwarts then." He mutters, knowing that she will hear him, but letting her choose to respond if she wishes. He knows that his involvement in her future is utterly dependent on her preferences, but wants her to know that he wishes to be involved.

"And not too educated for Hogwarts I'm afraid."

Perhaps that is true, but Aberforth suspects that she could pass any test that the ministry or Hogwarts put in front of her. She was no slouch in France, and he doubts that she would have spent her whole captured time in a cell by herself.

He has seen men like that, man who see the sun for the first time in years, whose bones are so prominent that you could mistake them for a Rattle-Bone Fern, a fern that has been described to look like a man's ribs, after the flesh has faded away.

({.})

He is afraid to ask about the injury he noticed the first day she walked in. It reminds him that he did not protect her.

She tries to be useful around the bar. Too innocent looking, and some of his customers seem unnerved by her youth. She is too small, too petite, and her height makes her look younger than her 17 years. Moreover, instead of the distain that they expect from someone so normal looking she treats them with respect. Hags expect running and screaming, not a pretty young girl smiling at them.

He hopes that she remembers how to protect herself long enough for him to get there to sort out trouble.

The only thing he tells her to do is to not ask too many questions. In France it was expected, young urchins were always running around asking for the news during the war. Youthfulness and intelligence made her a powerful source of information on the streets. Here, however, where interest from an outsider means they want something, probing is not useful for collecting information.

While things were collectively more dire in wartime France, the powerful narrative of "all in the same boat" sometimes lead people to great acts of kindness and connections with strangers. For some it only made them more self-serving and cruel, but for most they were willing to try and help out others who did not seem threatening. Even the Germans who invaded were sometimes described by Parisians as "quite polite."

On the contrary, here strangers do not talk to those outside of their social class. All of the French were generally of the same social class that is to say beneath the Germans, and thus felt free to talk to those of the same class. In England at this time, however, the differences were so exaggerated that eventually magicals believed that there truly were strong differences between the poor and the wealthy, the pure and the dirty, the creature and the human. It is even worse because there is only one school in England. In France where there are several schools, although only one well known outside of France, reputations can be built in the school yard, but when you graduate there are other schools whose classes they do not know.

In England, with just Hogwarts, everyone knows everyone. Those who cannot go to Hogwarts are disrespected and rejected from the upper echelons of society.

Alberforth could never have explained this in a sociologists terms, but he could see the rules and could use them to his advantage.

He had been born firmly in the middle. In the middle of his family, in the middle class, of average intelligence and power, his extreme averageness made him well able to blend in. His gruffness made people underestimate his intelligence, but it made people respect the words he did say.

({.})

Maybe half of his customers went to Hogwarts when they were younger. A few were thrown out, a few only stayed long enough to complete their OWLS. Some never had the chance at all. The ones who were not permitted to go are usually the most dangerous ones.

Very few are rejected from Hogwarts though. Hogwarts is the breeding ground for politicians and shop keepers alike, and those two professions require knowing and being respected by as many people as possible.

One of Aberforth's best friends was kicked out after her OWLS. She did so well on them that the professors thought she had cheated. When her father heard of the dishonor for even being suspected of such a thing he refused to let her go to the board hearing, and she was summarly expelled.

After he graduated Aberforth tried to find her, but no one was in her families house, and on his way to France he was caught up in the war.

({.})

It's true, she is not too educated for Hogwarts. She is intelligent, but her formal education ended before her fifth year, so she has no formal testing. Of course she would never submit that testing, as it would refer people back to her previous life, but still.

"You should go to Hogwarts."

"What year would I go into?"

"In terms of schooling, year three is what ya got formally. In terms of actual knowledge, I'm not sure." He says with a shrug.

"Very well, do you know anyone to catch me up?" She says, and a pregnant silence follows. She knows that Albus teaches there. Information anyone who has looked at a newspaper in the past week since Grindelwald defeat would know.

He still does not know how she knows they are brothers. Neither like to acknowledge the connection, aside from the family name which he never goes by. Or how she found him. Asking questions is her domain though, and she always was good at getting information out. One of those things he taught her of the basics of, but she quickly surpassed him.

"No." He replies.

* * *

**I don't have a beta, although I am looking for one.**


	9. Moving On

**_Advice gratefully accepted_**

Going to Hogwarts would have been troublesome. She spent so much time around Grindelwald these last few years that she knew her magic wasn't pure anymore. Like how women's menstrual cycles sync up, so do the magical aura of those who spend time together.

Especially in emotionally charged situations.

Grindelwald had explained this to her one day, when talking about why growing up with muggles was so much harder for a young witch or wizard. How the child would not fully bond with the muggle because they would always be seeking that aura. That the aura was shown to be comforting for infants and children, all the way through adulthood. That's why, even at the age of 10 right before their magical maturity of 11 children would still often react physically to areas with strong magical presences.

_({.})_

"Teach me how to blend in"

This request strongly reminds him of what he used to teach her, namely, how to survive.

He knows better than to correct her though. He once tried to set out their curriculum, when they first met, but she quickly corrected him with goat horns that he did not notice until the next day. His little mouse will learn everything he has to offer, but she will pester him with her endless questions on whatever subject she finds the most worthy.

So he teaches her more about enchanting. He has no use for the flashy or gaudy items that purebloods prefer to buy. The objects he creates are not beautiful, but useful. They work, and that is all he needs.

Her creations used to be beautiful. She created a bug for the resistance that would crawl around recording information, only to return to its creator if it heard a keyword like 'emergency', the name of someone she cared about, or 'what a strange bug'. Blue with a purple belly it stood out, but so few people looked at bugs that it was never recognized.

He wishes that she still created such ridiculous items.

A stick that points towards whoever you need to find with a little bit of something they own.

A brown cloth that quickly heals curse wounds.

Useful items.

No longer whimsical though.

({.})

The first time a customer tries to flirt she changes his nose to a pigs nose. The second time she gives him a tail. Of course he doesn't notice until he goes back to his bar seat and tries to sit down on his now sensitive appendage.

Aberforth was watching of course, and indicates his approval by throwing a slow acting hair removal charm that will activate next time the pub goer steps into a butcher's shop.

({.})

After his fall she never returns to France, already knowing that everyone she personally worked with in the Resistance is dead or mad in Nurmengard. Grindelwald liked to torture them in front of her. Eventually she began to give him tips on how to distress her peers. Physical torture is less interesting to Grindelwald, and he appreciates her skill in psychological torture. Of course she is never allowed out of her cell, or any comforts for her information, but the benefit of his attentions helps keep away the guards. Guards that he knows visit her while he is gone for too long.

He counts on that in fact.

He wants her to appreciate when he is there, even if he prevents pain that she would not otherwise have if she were released.

Both he and she know that this is not true happiness, or something she should thank him for, but psychological pressures are hard to overcome, even when acknowledged. Stockholm syndrome has not been named yet, but both have been too involved with those who torture and kill to not have seen or heard of this.

Hermione acknowledged early into her internment at Nurmengard that the Rebellion were not her friends. She was betrayed. Someone sold her out, and while that only necessitates one guilty party, no one came after her.

({.})

"Did your skills go rusty after so long asleep?" Not asleep, in a coma, but it is so British to understate things and she is trying to fit in.

"And did you learn something around such vicious murderers?" Dry, yes, but no malice is meant.

"Well I am alive so one would presume."

At that the left side of his face does quirk for a second. They are eating breakfast at a small table next to the bar, alone, as the Hog's Head's guests are not the type to wake up early for a meal, and the sunny day means that even his more persistent drinkers will sleep in this morning.

She pulls out a wand, not her original, and Hermione is sure that the Goat noticed. Instead of giving his the opportunity to ask questions he will not like the answers to she shoots a banishing spell at the food. Food waste is impermissible, and it is easy enough for her to send it to another table.

He takes her distraction to shoot a tickling hex at him. It is insulting. He knows and means it to be insulting.

Gradual escalation would waste both of their time, and she sends a cutting hex at him.

* * *

**Sorry that opening line is super lame. I wanted to make a joke about a bartender always shaking, never blending or stirring, but I dont think that Aberforth actually has a sense of humor. **


	10. Tom is a Butt Face

_Advice gratefully accepted_

_({.})_

Going to Aberforth was truly a whim. She did not know where he was taken. Only that he was taken by family. This she knows because one of her spies reported that after Grindelwald clipped The Goat with a spell she recognized, a spell she used quite frequently, a spell she had been taught by the Goat.

Her spy, a child, was confused by a lazy hex that had sent him into a wall with a slight concussion and a bruised knee, but he still managed to draw a picture for The Mouse of the mysterious man who had been on the outskirts of the battle. Obviously the mystery man was close family to The Goat.

When Hermione was back with the resistance it was too late to send a rescue party to where she thought his family might have taken him. Besides, she had only just broken out of a concentration camp herself, and was working to pull the resistance back together again.

({.})

The second time a customer accosted Hermione at The Hogs Head she was unable to get a spell off in time and was caught by the wrist for all her troubles. Fortunately a regular who owed quite a bit on his tab took his chance to get some of that paid off and sent a stinging hex at the mistaken flirt.

The drunk almost missed, but somehow managed to knick where the customer held on to Hermione. Hermione was given a swollen hand for the rest of the day, but did knock a bit of sickles off her helper's tab.

({.})

No matter how long he was in France Aberforth always kept some of his British accent. It came out whenever he yelled. Most people were too intimidated to listen to how he pronounced his words when he was angry, but The Mouse did not space out when upset. Rather she focused her formidable concentration even more. And having her adopted father yell at her for giving a small dog some food made her upset.

She never goes to Hogwarts. Instead she travels to Knockturn alley and finds a job at one of the seedier werewolf bars. Alberforth offers her a reference, but she prefers to start again without any connection to France.

({.})

"What are you having, darling?" Hermione has perfected her barmaid personality. Here she is open, friendly and a little naive. The dark creatures that visit her bar are always offering her advice so that she might protect herself better. Often that advice comes from personal experience, a useful way for her to flush out more information.

"A firewhisky for me, and a pumpkin juice for the tyke"

Very few children come into the bar, but with times getting harder most people can't afford to leave them with someone else.

"Sure, how's your bookstore?"

"You know how it's been, less and less of our folks have time to read, never mind pay for books."

"Has little moon started her letters yet?"

"She just learned the whole alphabet! Little moon, come show Miss Wilde what I taught you last week."

Little moon is not a werewolf, unlike her father. Thus she has the potential to go to Hogwarts, unlike so many other patrons of the bar.

({.})

"The Blue's stole a dark magic pendant from a Red store, so you better take care of yourself honey."

Marigold, a beautiful name for an unfortunate looking hag, is convinced that Hermione would lose her head if it was not attached to her neck.

She also always has the best gossip, being in the information trade herself. She reads palms for a living. Born into the side branch of a pureblood family she knows everyone who has magical relations at least three generations back.

({.})

"Hey Boss, do we have anyone who needs a shoemaker? Another refugee is looking for a job."

They don't speak of the war very often in England. It barely touched the magical part, and those who it did foisted the blame onto the dark creatures that Grindelwald allied with, forgetting that his major power base was the purebloods.

Hermione's boss never realized that she is from the continent. She was not sure if she would be hired as a war prisoner, and had no need for others to know how close quarters to the German army she kept several years before the war's end.

"No shoemakers, but I would send 'em to Old Teddy's, the tanner. If they're good with shoes, they might be able to work with the hides."

Magicals merely remember that the werewolves lead the attack in Brussels that killed muggles and magical's indiscriminately until the full moon set.

({.})

**I am trying to update Tuesday and Thursday's, but feel free to send me a message if I forget. Short-term memory loss is a bitch. Never get a concussion (or 5) kids. Don't do it.**


	11. A career, not just a job

**_Advice gratefully accepted_**

_({.})_

The bar is empty on the full moon. Well almost empty. Marigold and Salome, Hermione's name here, are watching the children that are not werewolves. It's a common misconception that a werewolf will give birth to a werewolf.

People think a werewolf bite is all that you need to become a full-fledged werewolf, but that isn't true. Blood is needed.

Which is why many werewolves do transmit the lupine disease when the child is born, but some don't. It's not common knowledge, but it seems that if the mother avoids breast feeding and uses a non-werewolves breast milk then often the child will not turn on their first few moons.

({.})

"Marigold why the rush honey?"

"The Auror's are doing a sweep for unregistered werewolves, little Salome. Do you mind watching the children while I place their parents in the back?"

"Not at all, although you had best take young Ted there, he was bit last month."

({.})

She looked too young to work at a werewolf bar. Desperation is the only reason he hired her. Well that and that the full moon was the only time she had the bar alone, and the time when their most dangerous customers were off.

He noticed that she was good with the children who stayed with his wife during the day. They were not paid well for taking care of the children, but his wife had enough miscarriages that weighed on her mind. This made her happier, so he didn't begrudge his wife's extra hands around the bar.

({.})

"Did that Blues gang really hustle down the bookmakers for the Reds?"

The Blues and Reds are as old as England. There are references to them on curse tablets that also hail Caesar. While chariot races are no longer held in England and the gladiator fights have less armor, duels and creature fights are popular items for betting. Funnily enough, similar to the Roman's fights of old, the 'Amazons' who fight can find riches.

Hermione serves both equally as they come in, but at the moment the bar is in Red controlled territory, so no proper Blue's come for a drink. Yet many improper Blues visit, especially the mots who are due some time away.

({.})

Her role as a bartender leaves her with her mornings free. Sometimes she visits Aberforth for a lesson, sometimes she spends that time enchanting. Before her capture she created beautiful items, and she hopes to eventually recapture that.

Until she can though, she creates purely practical items. A blanket that is always warm, a hat that hides your face, a ring for communicating, things that patrons of her bar can use.

They are her first customers. She acts as an intermediary, as if someone pays her a fee to sell the items 'he' creates. No one would believe that this young looking girl could make something worth selling, unless it were a glass of ale.

({.})

War will come to England again. Like the Treaty of Versailles in the Great War the ministry has gone too far against dark influences.

Her customers are becoming more impoverished and more people are forced to find jobs in the black market. Questionable jobs for uncertain money.

The Red and Blues have no need for recruitment, they have in fact become more discriminatory in their members.

_({.})_

Borgin is a cruel man for business. He would cheat a starving child out of a knut if that child had anything useful to sell. Because everyone knows this he often hires an assistant as cruel as him, but without the less savory reputation.

He likes to scoop up a poor Hogwarts grad every few years or so.

({.})

Her reputation, or rather the reputation of her 'employer' has grown enough that she takes commissions. There are few enchanters available for hire, and despite her modest skills there is a market for what she produces.

This brings her into contact with Tom Riddle, but only so far as to understand how similar to Grindelwald he is. Less mania, but the adoration of power is still there. It is there in how he talks and looks. It is when his eyes flash when he is dismissed and how he delights in controlling a room, even if it seems as if he has faded into the shadows. She starts to look for the magical power that Grindelwald had, to see if this is the next dark lord, but when she does not find it she relaxes.

You could not call them friends, but they do work together and he knows to go to her if a customer needs something that they do not have.

There is no need for her to compare him to Gellert, but she seems flashes of her old jailor everywhere. In how Marigold immediately started calling her "honey," how once he told her that her looks would guarantee that people trusted her.

* * *

**Over 10,000 words! Also I realize that I do not have characters for her boss and his wife. I would love to use some characters from the cannon, but I'm not sure who to choose. **


	12. A Summary of a Home

Aberforth is like a father to her, and as such she feels compelled to stay away most of the time. Hermione prefers the bustle of London, even if the only place that would hire a non-Hogwarts grad is in Knockturn Alley.

Knockturn alley is exactly like one expects, except so much larger.

Most see the shops and assume that the customers appear fully formed from their puss of mud, ready to terrorize children. That pit is just farther down Knockturn, perhaps behind a store that also sells shrunken heads. Or perhaps it is behind the crone's stand where for a sickle and a song she will place a curse on a letter for you.

Aurors stopped going into Knockturn after dark long ago. Perhaps it is a primordial fear that grips them, or maybe just common sense. Most people would say there isn't anything too common about common sense though. Although the people who survive Knockturn has a good deal of common sense.


End file.
